Sunday, June 6, 2010

Meredith asked: "In metals at high temp, you can expect the dpa-induced structural problems to anneal out, at least to some extent. Will they anneal out in the non-oxide ceramics?"

Ceramics aren't my field of expertise, but I believe the answer is "yes." SiC, graphite, and related materials are being examined for high-DPA applications.

Anonymous asked: "Isn't one of the advantages of the MSR designs the fact that they are not 'fast' reactors but thermal ones, which hence implies that the neutrons are themselves slower when they hit the containment material than their fast reactor cousins?"

I have lots of opinions. The ones regarding nuclear power and nuclear weapons are here. I'm not an expert, so do yourself a favor and ignore me. Except for materials science, I do feign expertise there. But still feel free to ignore me.